I want to buy a hollow body guitar but I'm not sure of what kind to get. I'm thinking of getting an Ibanez Artcore guitar but I was wondering if any of the guitar players have any suggestions

Depends on what you wanna do with it (or more accurately, what you want it to do for you). Jazz, rockabilly, normal "rock," or country?

I want it mostly for jazz and blues type stuff

Well, then you'll want something warm and dark. Lemme dig.

Not familiar with the Ibanez.

I have a Gibson ES135 and love love it and I play alt-country that gets loudish and weirdish at times.

If you are going to be doing anything with volume, find something with a block down the center. Otherwise, it can become an uncontrollable beast.

If price is an issue, the Epi 335 Dots are pretty good for the cash.

Yeah I forgot to mention i'm looking to spend somewhere between $300-$700 on the guitar

Here are my picks. I assumed you wanna drop less than a grand, and preferrably less than $800.

The epiphone Zephyr Blues Deluxe is a good pick. 3 P90's means a lot of flexibility, and that style pickup means you have the option (and this is Very important) of changing the pickups out if you wanna, as opposed to some of the wierder, jazz models (ibanez artcore jazz whatevers). See they make these things pretty well now for cheap, but they don't spend much on the electronics, so sometimes the guitar is an 8, but the pickups are a 6. Wait till you have soem more dough, spend $180 on a new set of kickass p90's, and viola.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Guitar/Electric?sku=518548

I would've said Gibson ES135, but I don't see them around. Used to be able to pick those up for around $800, and they were pretty ok, but now I see just the ES137, and it's $1500 or so.

I suspect you'd enjoy most of the epiphones in that range, but for blues and jazz, the one above is flexible, different than everything else, and worth the $.

Right about the pickups - hardware as well. Do what you can now, then installment plan it with better pickups, tuners, etc. It's pretty rare that you'll be perfectly content with a guitar as-is unless you throw some big cash around. Keep in mind that you can invest more later on. Guitar prices are dropping, but some of the lower end stuff is stocked with some pretty shoddy hardware. Doesn't mean you can't get some nice locking tuners on a Epi.

Check out Harmony Central for some used classified. The prices are more reasonable than some of the feeding frenzies at ebay.

Also, try to get a pro set-up job at some point. Makes a huge difference.

I have one of these, and the thing is my baby. I can't walk past it without playing at least a few chords. Twould be a good choice if the choice is made.

gretsch

Gretsch actually came out with some budget models a few years back. Can't vouch for the quality, though.

Thanks for all of the advice, I'm going to look into the guitars you mentioned

I haven't liked anything of theirs that was less than $1500 or so in a while, but then I haven't been looking lately. I don't think they specialize in "quality cheap."

Hey Cap'n, what about the Reissue '72 Tele Semi-hollow?

Also Here

They're not for him, but I like 'em. Except one thing... one of the golden rules: Fender doesn't know how to make a decent humbucking pickup. It baffles them. So as soon as I got one of these, I'd be after either...

- Gibson PAF's
- PRS McCarty's
- Gibson Classic 57's

or my favoritest ever,

- Duncan Pearly Gates. Mmmmm... warren haynes....

Yeah, they're cool, but the hollowed solid body electric does remarkably little to the tone. Little woodier, little more open and unfocused, but not like a 335 or something. Mostly cosmetic (and I mean that in a good way, because as we both know, I love me some tele sound as-is).

Yeah, I know the're not really preferrable for jazz/blues like the larger Gibsons and the like, I just wanted to bring them up b/c they are one of my fav guitars.